Spring Equinox

Spring Equinox, Across much of the United States, this has been an unusually mild winter, especially for those living east of the Mississippi. Not a few people have noted that spring seems to have come early this year. Of course, in a meteorological sense that could be true, but in 2012 it will also be true in an astronomical sense as well, because this year spring will make its earliest arrival since the late 19th century: 1896, to be exact.

The vernal equinox – the first day of spring – will arrive tomorrow (March 20) at 05:14 Universal Time, or 1:14 a.m. EDT. Even more intriguing is that for those in the Mountain and Pacific Time zones, the equinox will actually arrive tonight (March 19).

Astronomers define an equinox as that moment when the sun arrives at one of two intersection points of the ecliptic (the sun’s path across the sky) and the celestial equator (Earth’s equator projected onto the sky). One such intersection point is located in western Virgo; the sun arrives there on Sept. 22 or 23, and appears to cross the equator from north to south, marking the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.

The other intersection point, in eastern Pisces, is where the sun will be tomorrow. The sun is now migrating north of the equator, hence this is the “vernal” or spring equinox. At 5:14 UT next Tuesday, the sun will be shining directly over the equator from the point of view of a spot in the Indian Ocean, 757 miles (1,218 km) southeast of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Spring Equinox

Spring Equinox, Halfway sandwiched between the shortest day of the year (winter solstice in December) and longest (summer solstice in June), the vernal equinox is the evidence of Earth’s motion around the Sun and, more importantly for those of us who live in high latitudes of the North, that warming and sunny days are finally on their way.

The word “equinox” is very similar to “equality” and in that sense, the days and nights are now almost on the same hours and the next few days longer and the nights shorter as we head toward summer.

In short the entire Northern Hemisphere welcomes the summer the southern hemisphere’s autumn and winter ahead.

Although it is now astronomical spring there are still many traditional winter constellations visible beginning in the southwestern night sky, but their days are numbered.

Looking at the sky color of the card can see one of the most westerly of these, Canis Minor, with its upper right edge. With the coming of spring, we have other constellations related to the time of annual renewal.

Leo, the Lion, is one of the most dominant season and it’s easy to find, just look for the big back “question mark” in the southeast. Some compare his sickle-shaped harvester is used to cut the stalks of ripe wheat.

Another method, more familiar to locate Leo is to imagine the famous Big Dipper full of water. If you drill a hole through its bottom, the water is running out and if you listen, you hear a roar as you dumped on your head (above the question mark upside down) of the so-called “King of Beasts. ”

However, you find that question mark is the lion’s mane (the curve), chest (straight line under the curve) and heart (the star Regulus is clear that the time the question mark is). The right triangle is the tilt to the left haunch of the lion’s right leg, so the final appearance of this majestic mane looks not unlike the Great Sphinx of Giza in Egypt.

Regulus, meaning “little king”, was named by Nicolas Copernicus (1473 – 1543), the same re-astronomer who proposed that the Sun was the center of the solar system and the planets in orbit.

Appearing in one eye Regulus is actually two pairs of stars orbiting around each other. Since that bright star is so close to the plane of the solar system, it is often obscured, covered or not by the moon as it moves through this part of the sky, it can even more rarely covered by the planets Mercury and Venus, and even more rarely by some asteroids.

Denebola, the brightest star in the triangle that marks the lion right thigh, has a name that actually tells us something about his position. It is derived from an Arabic phrase meaning “lion’s tail” and verbal descriptions of this group of Leo’s tail curls down her body, then again with Denebola marking tufts at the end.

Saturn is low in the southeast this time of year near the Virgin, Star of the Virgin, Porrima. If you look closely you’ll notice that all the stars twinkle or sparkle due to turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere, the planets are not. See Saturn’s yellowish white in the coming weeks, he slowly seems to approach Porrima, a combination of rings and the planet movement of our own world around the sun.

While watching this part of the sky your eyes can be easily captured by Arcturus colorful and dazzling in Bo? Tes, the Herdsman.

Finally, and certainly in this case, is the group known as the wave Coma Berenices, Berenice’s Hair?

Lying between Leo and Bo? Tes, it becomes more interesting if you scan it with a pair of binoculars. In doing so, you will be able to see a myriad of stars that are, according to legend, supposed to be the hair silky beauty of this ancient Egyptian. Although the modern constellation itself was not done until the 16th century.

Additionally on March 21 at 20:30 the chart can also be used in the coming weeks – March 28 to 20 hours and 4 April at 19:30.

Protect your vision at night using a flashlight with a piece of red tape gel to its target, or turning your flashlight in a red plastic or brown paper bag. These will help reduce the brightness of the flashlight is still let you see the black and white version of the chart you can print to take off.